Interesting post from Yahoo finance
Justjohn12 days ago
My thoughts on Titan and Robotically Assisted surgery.. Please excuse any typos and misspellings. The print is small, and I cannot see as well as I use to.
In 2000 I started investing in Computer Motion. As a graduation present, I bought my daughter 200 shares at $10. When the stock dropped to $8, I bought a 1000 shares for myself. When the price dropped to $4, I bought 4000 shares. When it dropped to $2, I bought 4000 shares. When it dropped to $2, I doubled up. I bought my last 5000 at $1. Before I ran out of cash I had 26000 shares of computer motion.
As I was accumulation Computer Motion, Computer Motion and Intuitive Surgical were suing each other over patent infringements. I obtained summaries of the lawsuits. Though I am not a lawyer, I could understand them. I thought Computer Motion had the best case.
In 2003, before the case was settled in Court, Computer Motion was merged into Intuitive Surgical. When the dust settled I ended up with 6800 shares of Intuitive Surgical, at twice what I paid for them. The owners of Computer Motion ended up getting 1/3 of the Intuitive Surgical stock.
If I held those shares today, I would have 20,400 share at $790 a share, living on my private island in the Caribbean. However, I sold my last 2200 shares for $510. So I am stuck in cold freezing Syracuse, NY.
I spent most of my working years as hardware/software engineer supporting Medical Researchers. So I somewhat understand Robot assisted surgery.
Because I think Intuitive Surgical share price is frothy and maybe always has been because the have always been the only game in town.
I believe there are better methods to treat some of the illnesses Intuitive Surgical treats. For example, I strongly believe precision radiation surgery is better for most Protate cancers than surgery, minimal or otherwise, with fewer side effects. There are studies that say so and at less than 1/2 the cost.
However, that does not mean that surgery is obsolete. In general minimally invasive is usually than open surgery.
I believe the Intuitive Surgical share price is frothy, and overpriced and overkill for many procedures performed on the Da Vinci.
Because of this, I have sought and researched other companies developing soft tissue robotically assisted surgery's. To date the only company that comes close to efficiently competing with Intuitive Surgical is Titan Medical or Medtronic's if they acquire Titan Medical.
